Ghana’s democratic credential receives applause (May 27,)

Ghana’s democratic credential has received applause from students of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. They described the country’s stability in a volatile sub-region as one that needed to be commended.
Social integration
A member of the delegation, Lt Col Julian Salusbery, praised the country’s peacekeeping efforts across the world and its ability to survive all intricacies and complexities of different religions, as well as blending the role of traditional rulers beautifully with the governance system without major problems.
“I have hugely been impressed by what I saw, I have not been to this part of Africa before and everyone we met appears to be in control and credible and appears to have vision for the future and seems absolutely determined about where they are going. My impression is that the future here is bright,” he said.
The defence students were interacting with a section of the Ghanaian media in Accra as part of a familiarisation tour of Ghana.
The interactions were centred on democracy, governance, politics and the media in Ghana and the use of social media.
The visit is intended to exercise Advance Command and Staff Course (ACSC) students’ ability to study and more deeply understand a foreign country and region.
 The exercise is known as ‘Regional Security Exercise 2’ and places particular emphasis on exploring the current political and security situation although it is also focused on generating a much deeper understanding of a host nation’s culture, history and economy.
The students are military officers from the UK, Canada, Iraq, Italy, Macedonia, Pakistan, Germany, Sri Lanka, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Slovakia.
The Defence Academy of the United Kingdom provides higher education for personnel in the British Armed Forces, civil service, other government departments and service personnel from other nations.
It provides  postgraduate education and command, staff, leadership, management, business skills and technology training.
Meetings
While in Ghana, the delegation interacted with the hierarchy of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, and the National Security Coordinator, Mr Joshua Kyeremeh, and also visited institutions including the GAF Command and Staff College, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre and the Golden Exotics Banana Plantation at Obom in the Eastern Region.
Lt Col Salusbery said his take-away from the trip was that Ghana and the United Kingdom were closer than he imagined with Ghanaians having a lot of affection for the UK.
Ghana-United Kingdom relations stretch as far back as the 19th century with the Bond of 1844 setting the tone for British rule in Ghana which was terminated in 1957 after Ghana gained independence.
For her part, Ms Ann Stow said she was impressed with the air of optimism that Ghanaians she interacted with exude. 

The Ghanaian journalists shared with the team topical issues including Ghana’s transition process, corruption and the role of the expected Special Independent Prosecutor, the media in Ghana and the hope and expectations of the Ghanaian youth from the current administration.  

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